THE Fifth Summit of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba starts today in the Cuban capital, Havana.And according to President Donald Ramotar, who is heading Guyana’s delegation to the meeting, Guyana will be fully participating in every aspect of the talks.
“Guyana will be fully participating in all the topics that are there to be dealt with; and we will be making our contributions,” he told the Guyana Chronicle Saturday in an invited comment.
He also noted Cuba’s sterling contribution to the Caribbean Region.
AREAS OF FOCUS
At the last meeting in the Trinidad capital, Port of Spain, CARICOM Heads agreed to continue to give priority to trade relations between CARICOM and Cuba; revisit efforts to update and implement the CARICOM-Cuba Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement; and revitalise the CARICOM-Cuba Joint Commission.
At that meet also, Heads underscored the importance of strengthening existing regional institutions and mechanisms, such as the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC), which advance the regional integrative effort, convinced that cooperation, solidarity, complementarity and the will to advance to higher levels of development that will best serve the expectations and interests of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, and preserve their independence, sovereignty and identity, and will thus continue working towards the consolidation of CELAC, ensuring that priorities of Caribbean Community Member States are accorded full cognisance within that framework.
Other issues addressed at the last CARICOM-Cuba Summit included:
* A shared conviction that efforts at National, Regional and International Development must be people-centred; that human sustainable development must be at the centre of regional cooperation efforts; that poverty, social exclusion, the scourge of AIDS, illiteracy, food security, crime and violence and effects of natural disasters must be addressed.
* A commitment to ensure access to knowledge by all as a means of fulfilling our goal of education for all, recognising that our societies can only advance with improved living standards through quality education that affords the opportunity of social inclusion.
* A renewed call for mechanisms that facilitate the transfer of clean and environmentally respectful technologies from Developed to Developing Countries, particularly Small Island Developing States, recognising this is of utmost importance in achieving sustainable development in the Caribbean Region.
* A commitment to increase protection and conservation efforts in the environmental context and in the sustainable use of the Region’s natural resources, particularly the Caribbean Sea, and to continue efforts at multilateral fora, the ACS and UN, aimed at achieving recognition of the Caribbean Sea as a Special Area in the context of sustainable development.
At the last meeting, there was also a commitment to actively engage in the process of formulation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and the need for transparent and inclusive negotiations, whose final outcome should respond in general to developing countries concerns, problems, needs and priorities.
CARICOM Heads’ determination to combat the most prominent non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and cancer, including the risk factors of physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol, and recognise as the most feasible combative strategy an approach that would include risk factor reduction, health system reform, equitable access to affordable medicines, and, improved surveillance and monitoring and assessment programmes, also featured.
CARICOM’s initiative concerning persons with disabilities and special needs and the serious threat posed by Climate Change to Small Island Developing States, Developing Countries with low-lying coastal areas were two other major issues that attracted attention at the last meeting.
EVERY THREE YEARS
The CARICOM-Cuba Summit is held every three years, in accordance with the Havana Declaration of December 2002, on the date that the leaders of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago broke a diplomatic embargo and visited Cuba. As such, the date December 8 has been designated CARICOM-Cuba Day.
According to a programme released to the press by the Cuban Foreign Ministry here, the Presidents of Suriname, Grenada, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda were scheduled to arrive on different flights yesterday at the José Martí International Airport, in Havana.
Heads of Delegation of Barbados, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines and Heads of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OACS) were also scheduled to arrive yesterday.
Previous Summit declarations of December 2002 (Havana), December 2005 (Bridgetown), December 2008 (Santiago de Cuba), and December 2011 (Port of Spain) have been acknowledged to have manifested advancements in the cooperative efforts on international and regional challenges.
